The Sultanate of Oman has achieved 11th place in the Entrepreneurship Index out of 49 countries participating in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report for the year 2023-2024, advancing 27 places from its ranking in the year 2022-2023.
The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority announced that all sub-indicators of the report have improved significantly, especially in vital areas such as financing emerging projects and developing government policies that support innovation and technology, in addition to strengthening the physical infrastructure, which is an essential pillar for the growth of emerging companies and small and medium enterprises, with praise and appreciation for the efforts.
Efforts are made to design and launch educational and training programmes, developed to meet the needs of the labour market and enhance entrepreneurship skills among Omani youth. The overall score for the Sultanate of Oman improved from 4.2 in the 2022-2023 report to 5.4 in the 2023-2024 report as a reflection of the efforts made to enhance the business environment and incentive packages.
The data showed an improvement in the levels of confidence among investors due to several factors, most notably the legal and regulatory measures that were adopted to facilitate procedures for establishing and operating businesses, in addition to the development of projects with high added value that enhance the Sultanate of Oman’s position on the global entrepreneurship map.
Halima bint Rashid al Zariyah, Chairwoman of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority, said about this achievement: "Today we celebrate an unprecedented achievement for the Sultanate of Oman in the field of entrepreneurship, as the continued joint efforts of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority with its partners in the entrepreneurship system in the public and private sectors have resulted in achieving a qualitative leap in the Global Entrepreneurship Index, reaching eleventh place globally, which reflects the tremendous efforts and hard work to enhance the business environment, government policies that support innovation and start-up companies, and continuous packages of incentives and facilities for entrepreneurs. This jump is also an important step towards achieving the goals of the Oman Vision 2040, and embodies our commitment to encourage a culture of entrepreneurship and support the entrepreneurial ambitions of our Omani youth, which strengthens the Sultanate of Oman’s position as a pioneering centre on the global entrepreneurship map.”
She also affirmed appreciation of the efforts and contributions of all partners of the entrepreneurship system in the Sultanate of Oman from the government and private sectors, entrepreneurs and emerging companies, and for the efforts of the University of Nizwa for its close cooperation and interest in participating in the preparation of the index report in the Sultanate of Oman.
Last year, the Sultanate of Oman hosted a high-level delegation of experts from the Global Entrepreneurship Observatory to review government efforts to support the system of SME and start-ups, and the efforts of the authority and its implemented and existing initiatives to support and empower SME, such as financing programmes, business incubators, regulating regulations and legislation, and developing a system of emerging companies based on technology and innovation, in addition to the goals of increasing the contribution to the gross domestic product, raising the contribution to the total value of non-oil exports, and raising entrepreneurship indicators, the authority’s objectives in order to achieve Oman Vision 2040, and learning about the promising Omani start-up companies programme.
The delegation also participated in workshops on developing the entrepreneurship system in Oman, which were implemented in cooperation with the strategic partners in the entrepreneurship system and start-up companies in Oman, in addition to the University of Nizwa, which is affiliated with the Authority.
The Global Entrepreneurship Observatory is the most important reference for information about entrepreneurship and its indicators and measurement at the world level. It was established in 1995 as a research project. The Global Entrepreneurship Index is a composite index that measures the rank of countries in terms of the competitiveness of the environment that supports entrepreneurship and includes several axes, the most prominent of which are: financing, government policies and programmes, government services directed at entrepreneurs, research, development and knowledge transfer, teaching entrepreneurship skills at various levels of education, labour market dynamism, supporting infrastructure, culture and community awareness towards entrepreneurship. The Global Entrepreneurship Observatory has also been an important and reliable source for more than 20 years that helps decision makers. It contributes to improving the outcomes of entrepreneurship, qualitatively and quantitatively, globally by providing comprehensive indicators and valuable information about entrepreneurship.
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